Press Review

“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” is convinced that President Serzh Sarkisian will not move to reform the Armenian judiciary in response to a report by human rights ombudsman Karen Andreasian alleging widespread corruption and abuses among judges. “For the authorities, the courts have two principal functions. Extorting money is not the most important of them,” writes the paper. “The courts’ punitive function is much more important. Serzh Sarkisian regards courts as a weapon for punishing political rivals, disobedient citizens and businesspeople refusing to play by his rules. And what is the guarantee that judges will duly execute his orders? There is only one such guarantee: there must be discrediting material against all of them … So nothing in the judicial system will change under these authorities.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” dismisses President Serzh Sarkisian’s assurances that membership in the Russian-led Customs Union opens up big economic opportunities for Armenia. The paper says only government-linked tycoons controlling lucrative imports of goods to Armenia will gain from it. Tax evasion among them will become even more widespread, it claims.

Deputy parliament speaker Eduard Sharmazanov tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that Turkey will use Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s visit to Yerevan for its broader efforts to imitate a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. “I can only say one thing: Davutoglu is coming to participate in a Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) conference as the foreign minister of a country that hosts the BSEC headquarters,” Sharmazanov says. He reiterates the official Armenian line that normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations cannot be linked to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “These are two different processes,” he says.

Citing unnamed Armenian diplomatic sources, “Aravot” reports that Yerevan has proposed to an Ankara a 3-point “roadmap” to normalizing bilateral ties. “Turkey must publicly acknowledge the Armenian genocide, open the border with Armenia and establish diplomatic relations with Armenia,” writes the paper. “After that Turkey would be able to come up with peace-making initiatives in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process.”